Forever_ambivalent wrote:Misha: At the beginning I loved her. She seemed to be an exact replica of another one of my friends (loud, cheerful, laughs a lot randomly, sweet, caring, nice). The biggest discerning factor was her circumstances as Shizune's slave translator (which made her very different to my friend later on). Misha's bad end was really upsetting though. Broke my heart a little bit and made me feel like shit. Although in the good end I was really happy that she recovered and that she is as wonderful as she was before. I definitely love Misha. Brilliant character.

Damn. I've been trying to get either of these routes for ages.

I am talking about the beginning and end of Shizune's route. Misha is quite a major character so I thought it would be fine to include her with the rest of the characters.

Potato wrote:

Forever_ambivalent wrote:Competition is terrible and forcing others into it is just despicable). How she treated Hisao and Misha in the beginning infuriated me

In what reality is competition terrible? And nobody is ever forced into competition. She hasn't exactly enslaved anybody to be her competition monkeys.

How she treats Hisao infuriated you? Huh...Yeah, now that you mention it, her trying to coax him out of depression and apathy was really totally shitty of her. Like, damn, Shizune, stop trying to help people out, you bitch.

Her trying coax him out of apathy and depression was one of the things that made me like shizune more. Her truing to pester hisao and trick him into the student council made me hate her at the beginning. I really hate it when everything a person does is quite obviously for some ulterior motive.
Also I would argue that lilly is Shizune's competition monkey. I can't help but feel that Shizune's starts arguments with Lilly on purpose. How she treated run at the beginning also irked me.
Still like shizune more than Emi though.

Guest Poster wrote:Weird starts being a less than good when it's preventing you from functioning on a basic level. Rin's weirdness would definitely count as a handicap in its own right, since it severely harms her ability to be independant. Rin basically needs someone to look out for her, not because she has difficulty doing stuff without arms (she doesn't, most of the time), but because when left alone she has the tendency to start neglecting herself.

Yeah, pretty much this.
There's a point when weird becomes less "Monty Python" and more "guy that's had his brain fried from a decade of daily cannabis use", and I can't help but feel Rin's at the latter end of the scale

Guest Poster wrote:Weird starts being a less than good when it's preventing you from functioning on a basic level. Rin's weirdness would definitely count as a handicap in its own right, since it severely harms her ability to be independant. Rin basically needs someone to look out for her, not because she has difficulty doing stuff without arms (she doesn't, most of the time), but because when left alone she has the tendency to start neglecting herself.

Yeah, pretty much this.
There's a point when weird becomes less "Monty Python" and more "guy that's had his brain fried from a decade of daily cannabis use", and I can't help but feel Rin's at the latter end of the scale

Point taken. I guess it comes down to preference how much is too much to be endearing.

RIn lingered last in line for brains, and the one she got was sorta rotten and insane...

Hanako first impression- Shy girl who seems to have some kind of dark secret, seeing as she has scars and shes here, something about the past most likely, significantly reminding me of myself in a way. (not so much the noticeable scars part, but the past part)

Hanako final impressions- Although it was tough, she has turned out to be the cutest little bundle of shyness i've ever seen and AKGEKWG she's so cuteee ;w;

Emi first impression- A cute bouncy little girl who seems to have a cute, teasy type of personality.

Emi impression after playing- That little jerk. Don't like her. No bueno. Rude and crazy. No bueno.

Emi after beautifully written paragraph by SpunkySix- She's cute and I understand where she comes from, but i'm not sure if I really like her all that much.

Rin first impression- Very strange and the sarcasm is strong. I'm the same way! Reminds me a bit of myself and my friend told me that of any character, i'm most like rin, so i figured i'd like her alot.

Rin final impression- A cute thought filled girl. Very loving and lovable once brought close enough and I absolutely loved how cute she can be without knowing it. Definently would have loved to see the story go a bit further, but i'm more than happy with the storyline and how she is and how she acts. :3

Shizune first impression- She's very different, i'm not sure i like her because she's quite intense about everything.
Shizune last impression ( haven't done storyline)- She's actually kind of sweet in the fact that she wants to be better and has such a competitive spark of the smallest things, although not quite my cup of tea.

Lily first impression- This girl is freakin adorable, and so generous and sweet and proper and ommogmwef, pls.
Lily last impression (Haven't done storyline)- Oh my gossshh she's so nice and proper in the way she does things and handles other people, DDD

I actually think that Kenji is a pretty complex character; how else can you become so disillusioned and downright paranoid?

It's either that, or he needs to lay off the comic books and the military journals, they're giving him ideas.

I figure that he has to have some kind of mental disorder mixed with comics and things like that. I wonder if there is actually any logical sense behind him. Either way your write. He is quite interesting and i'd like to see a backstory to him. Unless there is one and I missed it.
The only backstory i've seen is during One of the path's when he speaks of his previous girlfriend for a brief amount of time. although i'm not even sure if he was serious about it or not.

Forever_ambivalent wrote:Her trying coax him out of apathy and depression was one of the things that made me like shizune more. Her trying to pester hisao and trick him into the student council made me hate her at the beginning. I really hate it when everything a person does is quite obviously for some ulterior motive.
Also I would argue that lilly is Shizune's competition monkey. I can't help but feel that Shizune's starts arguments with Lilly on purpose. How she treated run at the beginning also irked me.
Still like shizune more than Emi though.

Except her trying to drag him into the council is a part of coaxing him out of apathy and depression. There's no time to mope around like a sadsack when you're swamped with work.

I don't recall Shizune starting any arguments, actually. She'll say something (via Misha), then someone else will respond in a way that creates an argument.

I love the interpretation of Pac-Man where he's a just a lowly worker retrieving golf balls left all over the course by the rich masters and the ghosts are all previous workers who got conked on the head and killed by incoming golf balls in the line of duty.

Actually, I think the opposite is true. Misha's light-hearted delivery probably takes the edge off to some degree. In Shizune's route Hisao gets involved in a spat between Lilly and Shizune without Misha around and being able to see what Shizune's saying without the Misha buffer actually makes her appear harsher.

Guest Poster wrote:Actually, I think the opposite is true. Misha's light-hearted delivery probably takes the edge off to some degree. In Shizune's route Hisao gets involved in a spat between Lilly and Shizune without Misha around and being able to see what Shizune's saying without the Misha buffer actually makes her appear harsher.

I think it's a mixture. Sign Language does need interpretation, and the way it's delivered is necessarily lacking in easily-translated nuance. So it can be both: Misha takes the edge off by her manner, but may introduce unintended nuance.

brythain wrote:
I think it's a mixture. Sign Language does need interpretation, and the way it's delivered is necessarily lacking in easily-translated nuance. So it can be both: Misha takes the edge off by her manner, but may introduce unintended nuance.

So, not so much that Misha lacks inflection, but the presentation of the intended message becomes changed slightly - if I'm getting this correctly? I personally did think that Misha was always amplifying the tension on Hisao during Shizune's ultimatums by the way she carried out the translations.

brythain wrote:
I think it's a mixture. Sign Language does need interpretation, and the way it's delivered is necessarily lacking in easily-translated nuance. So it can be both: Misha takes the edge off by her manner, but may introduce unintended nuance.

So, not so much that Misha lacks inflection, but the presentation of the intended message becomes changed slightly - if I'm getting this correctly? I personally did think that Misha was always amplifying the tension on Hisao during Shizune's ultimatums by the way she carried out the translations.

*nods* If I ever met these two in real life, I know I would feel more bothered by the disconnect between Shizune's words and Misha's delivery than by any actual issue I'd have with the words themselves.